Streaming Kickers: Week 15 Fantasy Football Targets

A proud alumna of the UGA Grady College of Journalism, Jennifer Eakins has been working in the sports industry for well over a decade. She has had stints with CNN Sports, the Atlanta Hawks and the Colorado Rockies. Her first fantasy football draft took place in 1996 where she selected Ricky Watters with the first overall pick, and she has been a fantasy degenerate ever since.

It’s Week 15, most likely your fantasy semi-finals, and you’ll need all the points you can get to make it to your league’s championship showdown. While some may scoff at researching the kicker position, we’ve found that projecting a kicker’s output isn’t as difficult or random as you may think—in fact, taking a look at Vegas odds is the best way to accurately predict a kicker’s weekly potential. By focusing in on the team implied point totals, game totals, and favorites, we can get a cumulative idea of how an offense will perform when it comes to settling for field goals, distance of kicks, and the like.

Another metric useful in projecting a kicker’s output is 4for4’s schedule-adjusted fantasy points allowed or aFPA. By removing the schedule bias, we can compare matchups in an apples-to-apples manner. By Week 4, there’s a solid sample size to work from, and the info gets more trustworthy with each data-filled week.

The goal in streaming is to roster a player who will return starting kicker fantasy points, and Week 14 proved to be a good one. Four of my picks ended the week in the top 8 among kickers with Josh Lambo fourth with 14 points, Jake Elliot fifth with 13, and both Travis Coons and Phil Dawson putting up 12 points as kickers seven and eight. 4for4’s optimal streaming kicker has 193 total points on the season, enough for first place among all kickers in the league. Let’s move forward to Week 15 and make those fake football finals!

In order to provide advice that you can actually implement, candidates for streaming must be available in at least 40% of Yahoo fantasy leagues.

Since taking over the job as the placekicker in Week 13, Coons ranks third among kickers with 25 fantasy points. The Chargers offense is firing on all cylinders as they head down the stretch, and have an implied total of 24 points versus the Chiefs on Saturday. Look for Coons to see plenty of action in this AFC West matchup, with Los Angeles favored by two. Rostered in just 4% of Yahoo leagues, Coons should be there for your streaming pleasure.

Forbath isn’t exactly on fire this season, nailing just four of his last nine field-goal attempts. However, the Vikings get a favorable contest versus the Bengals at home, a team ranked dead-last in kicker aFPA. Minnesota is favored by 11 points, with an implied team total of 26.5, meaning Forbath should see the field often on Sunday. He could be the one to send you to the big game, and he’s only owned in 43% of Yahoo leagues.